Roulette, since 1978 a formerly humble Manhattan-based presenter of avant-garde "intermedia," has signed a 20-year lease on a former YWCA art deco 600-seat theater in Brooklyn. This Next weekend (Oct. 7, 8, 9) is the space's three-night benefit "Easy Not Easy," assigning emerging (read: little known) artists presumably simple scores by such its longtime stalwarts as Pauline Oliveros and John Zorn. Read more all about it in my column in City Arts - New York . . . howardmandel.com
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Why isn't the amazing current generation of creative (jazz) musicians better known? Maybe because major artists of the not-so-distant past are practicing the art form at splendid peaks, overturning clichés about dwindling powers of octogenarians. Read my column in City Arts New York for a report that touches on Sonny Rollins, Roy Haynes and Muhal Richard Abrams, who tower over the start of the fall 2010 season.
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Gone from Youtube are two brief but vivid excerpts from Sonny Rollins' 80th birthday concert at the Beacon Theater on Sept. 10 -- one showing the great tenor saxophonist in duet with percussionist Sammy Figueroa, the second documenting the surprise, climactic contributions of Ornette Coleman to the set, and Rollins' inspired improvised responses. What a shame! -- from at least one perspective. Or should those visuals never have been made public without the artists' permissions? … [Read more...]

Too good to not post: Ornette Coleman was surprise guest with Sonny Rollins at his fast-become-famous Beacon Theater 80th birthday party on September 10 (backstage there was birthday cake shaped like a saxophone, made of marzipan). Note SR's quote at about 10 minutes in of "I'll Take Manhattan," which he certainly did. [[As of 9/15/2010 this video has been removed from Youtube by it's "user." Research will follow. … [Read more...]

A bootlegged video excerpt of Sonny Rollins at the Beacon Theater, 9/10/2010 is available on youtube -- the sound doesn't do him justice, and I don't intend to encourage unauthorized video, but it is out there to give the world a brief idea of last night's concert. On the other hand, Bret Primack, the Jazz Video Guy, has been working long and hard on, for and with Sonny, and I embed below a clip from the end of a performance of "Tenor Madness" from Antibes, 2005, which is auhorized to be on the … [Read more...]

At age 80, Sonny Rollins is indisputably the greatest living jazz tenor saxophonist, proved last night throughout a 2-hour set at New York's sold-out Beacon Theater in which harmolodic sage Ornette Coleman sat in, backed by drummer Roy Haynes and bassist Christian McBride, on "Tenor Madness." "Sonnymoon For Two". Rollins was hunched and hobbled when he came onstage, but once he started blowing he stood upright and blasted his big bold sound with energy that brooked no diminishment of strength or inspiration, bending only to fire … [Read more...]

Contrary to my paean to Richard M. Daley's support of Chicago's music and arts, Chicago Tribune rock-crit Greg Kot writes of the Mayor's treatment of the local music scene as a "second class citizen." It's true the City has messed with club venues -- Marguerite Horberg of established the multi-genre Hot House years back and now runs the progressive culture initiative Portoluz regaled me last weekend with tales of fire inspectors evacuating theaters mid-show over petty infractions and other harrassments; Kot reminds us of Chi's … [Read more...]

Shocking news from Chicago: Richard Daley won't be mayor for life. Yet he's the Windy City's most significant patron of culture, leaving a legacy that ought to -- that is, should, and might -- survive him. Which was unexpected when he succeeded Mayor Harold Washington in 1989, but clear from my visit to Labor Day weekend's 32nd annual Chicago Jazz Festival. … [Read more...]

Can we guestimate how many listeners will be out hearing jazz this Labor Day weekend, at festivals free and/or famous around the U.S.? Chicago, Detroit, Tanglewood, Aspen, Vail, Los Angeles, Washington DC (well, Herndon VA), Philadelphia, San Jose, Macinac Island (Michigan) Indianapolis, St. Louis, Wilmington and Bethany Beach (Delaware), San Diego, Tucson, (see also the Latin Jazz fest, Sept 10 -11), Albuquerque. and Charleston all have concerts, street fairs and other celebratory activities based on or including jazz in its … [Read more...]

The Jazz Institute of Chicago's annual club tour is an urban presentation innovation and a treat, revealing an unheralded depth of local audiences, entrepreneurs and artists. On Wednesday night, Dudley Owens blew tenor sax with the largest sound I've heard maybe ever, in combo with an older pianist (sorry I didn't get his name) who played as no one ever told him he couldn't, turning the keyboard inside-out. They completely refreshed the Billie Holiday standard "All of Me" at a friendly, funky hangout called City Life Cocktail Lounge on East … [Read more...]

#Jazzlives -- the Twitter
campaign aimed at demonstrating that there is
a big and enthusiastic audience for live
jazz -- is one year old. What has it wrought?
First: What is #jazzlives
and how does it work? To participate in the campaign, audience members at live
jazz performances "tweet" - write a post on their Twitter account-- about
who they heard and where they heard them, including "#jazzlives" in the total 140 characters. You can view all #jazzlives posts as a "stream"
on various websites and blogs, including this one. You
can … [Read more...]

Amazing, historic, never-before-public recordings from an under-documented, under-appreciated but highly developmental era of jazz and new music comes to light! Complete sets and interviews from the international stars who gave birth to world jazz and downtown improv at the Manhattan arts loft Soundscape will be broadcast by WKCR-FM and archived online starting Sept. 6 -- and are also at the core of the subscription-based CMS Archival Project, recently launched by the Creative Music Studio (Woodstock, NY, circa 1971 - '84). And … [Read more...]

Howard Mandel

I'm a Chicago-born (and after 32 years in NYC, recently repatriated) writer, editor, author, arts reporter for National Public Radio, consultant and nascent videographer -- a veteran freelance journalist working on newspapers, magazines and websites, appearing on tv and radio, teaching at New York University and elsewhere, consulting on media, publishing and jazz-related issues. I'm president of the Jazz Journalists Association, a non-profit membership organization devoted to using all media to disseminate news and views about all kinds of jazz.
My books are Future Jazz (Oxford U Press, 1999) and Miles Ornette Cecil - Jazz Beyond Jazz (Routledge, 2008). I was general editor of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz and Blues (Flame Tree 2005/Billboard Books 2006). Of course I'm working on something new. . . Read More…

About Jazz Beyond Jazz

What if there's more to jazz than you suppose? What if jazz demolishes suppositions and breaks all bounds? What if jazz - and the jazz beyond, behind, under and around jazz - could enrich your life?
What if jazz is the subtle, insightful, stylish, … [Read More...]

@JazzMandel

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Interviews & Articles

Reviewing a sleeping giant, ESP Disks before its early '00s revival
Howard Mandel c 1997, published in issue 157, The Wire
It was a time before psychedelics. Following the seismic cultural disruptions of the mid '50s, rock 'n' roll had hit a … [Read More...]

Howard Mandel c 1998/published by DownBeat, July 1998, under headline Beneath the Underdog (the editor's reference to Charles Mingus's autobiography):
There's an anchor for New York's downtown free jazz and improv "wild bunch": his name is William … [Read More...]

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This is a complete version of the feature on pianist Matthew Shipp I wrote for The Wire, published in February, 1998
Is this the face of New York's jazz avant now? Pianist Matt … [Read More...]

Miles Davis
intended On The Corner to be a
personal statement, an esthetic breakthrough and a social provocation upon its
release in fall of 1972. He could hardly have been more successful: the album
was all that, though it has taken decades for its … [Read More...]